Someone Is Listening
by Calthis
Summary: After sending the message, Jyn and Cassian make their way down to the beach to meet their fate.


The relief Jyn felt at the sudden appearance of Cassian was quickly destroyed by the sight of Krennic starting to get up. Cassian's shot had missed its mark. He was still alive. Rage boiled up inside her at the sight of him moving. He was the reason she had lost everything. He was the reason her parents were dead, her home was lost and she had spent half her life as a slave. And now, he was the reason so many rebel pilots were dying, including some of the only friends she had ever had.

With a snarling growl, she started to lunge towards him. She didn't know what her plan was but she had vague plans to tear him apart with her bare hands. But Cassian stopped her. He seized her arm and dragged her back against him. The action took a lot of effort and sent pain burning through him but he knew he had to stop her. They didn't have long and he didn't want her last moments to be taken up with fighting a man who was already defeated.

Jyn fought against him, pulling to get away. He didn't let go, dragging her back with every attempt to escape.

"No. Leave it" he breathed. "Leave it."

Slowly, Jyn calmed. Her anger dissipated and her exhaustion hit her. Instead of seeing the man who had taken everything from her, she just saw a broken man who had failed. She had already beaten him. She didn't need to pay any more attention to him. She had finally won.

"Jyn?" Cassian asked.

"I'm fine. Let's go" she said, finally turning away from Krennic.

"Yeah. Let's go."

Cassian had to lean on her with his arm around her shoulders. He limped heavily, sharp pain radiating up and down his spine. He was fairly certain it was broken and that he shouldn't be walking, but what did it matter now? Things were over. Cassian was under no illusion that they would be getting off the planet alive. This was their last time.

"Take the elevator" he said, gesturing clumsily towards the doors. "If it's still working."

"It is" Jyn said, helping him through the doors. Slowly they slid closed behind them. The lights weren't working anymore and they were shut into flickering darkness. Jyn leaned against the wall, trying to keep herself standing. All she wanted to do was lay down and never move again. But she had to keep going. She had to help Cassian.

Jyn looked up at Cassian, able to feel his heart pounding due to their closeness. It hadn't slowed down at all since she had first started helping him. If anything it had gotten faster. He was looking at her. He was more than looking at her. His gaze was so soft and so deep that she felt like he was looking right through her. He could see everything about her, every thought and every feeling. And she didn't care. She gazed right back at him.

In the moments of faint light, she saw him leaning down towards her. She didn't pull away.

His lips met hers very softly, almost uncertainly. It was only brief. Jyn wasn't sure what she felt when he pulled away. For a moment, everything had stopped. She hadn't felt any pain or fear for that brief moment. Everything had been right. They had to face reality again thought and the doors to the elevator slid open on the ground floor.

The doors opened right to the outside, but it was no longer the picturesque paradise they had seen flying in. The ground and trees had been torn up by bombs. Troopers ran in small packs, firing on groups of rebels. Bodies were strewn about, contorted into positions impossible in life.

None of it felt real anymore. As she limped and dragged her feet, Cassian's arm over her shoulders and her arm around his waist, she felt like she was floating. She knew the ground was beneath her but she couldn't feel it anymore. The sounds of battle were far away. Even the fighters screaming overhead seemed distant in her memory. Things were beginning to end.

"Where are we going?" Cassian asked. His steps were coming even more slowly, knees buckling under his own weight. His strength was failing him, no matter how much he battled to keep going.

"I don't know" Jyn said. "We're just… walking."

"We can't escape this."

"I know."

Jyn nodded and just continued in a straight line. The troopers had all passed so there was no one to stop them. Eventually they were forced to stop by the water opening up in front of them. Sand blew over their scuffed shoes and the smell of salt water brought back a little bit of peace and paradise. If she focused only on the two details, she could pretend the battle wasn't still raging on. It took a fighter crashing down in a fiery mess of metal barely a hundred yards away to bring her back to reality. The day on the beach was over.

Jyn looked to Cassian. While moments earlier she thought of nothing to do with their mission, now it was all she could think of. She could tell it was on his mind as well. With a sigh, she looked up. The sky was clustered with ships and fighters, moving back and forth. Wreckage from ships that failed to get through the shield in time added extra obstacles. From what she saw, most were unsuccessful in their attempts to avoid them. It didn't look like anyone could possibly be free enough to have received their message.

"Do you think anyone is listening?" she asked. Cassian couldn't decide if she sounded more hopeful or more desperate. She needed some kind of assurance that everything wasn't for nothing. So many people had died. All she could do was hope that it hadn't all been for nothing.

"Someone is" he replied.

Closing her eyes in relief, Jyn dropped down to her knees. Cassian dropped down beside her almost immediately. Without her support, he had no ability to stay on his feet. As his knees hit the sand, white hot pain tore through his back. It was definitely broken. Cassian grit his teeth against it, refusing to reveal that he was in as much pain as he was. There was no medical help available. Complaining wouldn't solve anything. Acknowledging it wouldn't help either. He didn't want to spend his last moments listing the various parts of him that hurt. Not when Jyn was with him.

Together, they watched as a beam emitted from the Death Star looming over the horizon. It streaked across the sky in a white destructive spear. Jyn's breath stuck in her throat and her chest hitched. She knew what was coming as the air about them steadily grew hotter and hotter. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the beam.

Suddenly, hands on her shoulders turned her around and press her into Cassian's chest. Her own chest heaved as she felt the tears on her face and realised she was crying. But she didn't feel any sadness or fear anymore. Instead she felt Cassian's heartbeat and warmth around him, his lips against the crook of her neck and the rest of the world falling away. And she heard her father's voice in the back of her mind telling her that everything was all right.

Everything was going to be just fine. She had done her part and it was enough.

Jyn closed her eyes, the peace of paradise returning in her mind.

The air was scorching her skin but she was past feeling.


End file.
